The Violence of Appropriation, Aufgehoben - No Process

‘Aufgehoben – no process’, a band name of distinction, alludes to the third stage in the Hegelian dialectic and more directly implies the dissolution of single egos into the unity of the music. But it’s tempting to ask whether this collective musical output isn’t more ‘overriden’ than ‘aufgehoben’ by the producer’s ego in his attempt to fuse musical strands through ‘non-organic’ appropriation. Despite the interesting and unusual aim of achieving a theoretical superstructure, what Aufgehoben ultimately gives us is full Pop-force.

With its two distorted, dry drums and deep-down bass, raving guitars and all other sorts of overdriven gear, this album makes for great, obnoxious ear-abuse just this side of the bearable: hence: POP: hence: listenable: hence: next to the first two AC/DC albums in my record collection. Stephen Robinson and his comrades are jamming away, rocking it hard and the sound transformation is rocking it even harder. It’s as if the initially ‘organic’ sounds have come out on the other side of the computer as ‘hyper-organic’, hitting you right in the stomach.

Among the six tracks on the album, there’s a HipHop track gone Japanese noise-nerd (‘Rolling Sovatto’); screeching, scratchy, metal-guitar overtones, (‘Mondo Cult Trip’); and ‘Enemy of the best’ – one of the best titled songs ever – in which a trebly and ruptured start up turns into an EMO-Hymn colliding Steve Albini, Ian McKay and Japanese avant-noise.

This album ends up sounding like the soundtrack to an action film with no story, where fight and form become one and the story is superseded.